Council tax is a regressive tax and requires radical reform - Yorkshire Post Letters

Action is long overdue on the funding of local government as your editorial comment, September 2, suggests. Your front page news report of the same day headed ‘Reform funding or councils face ruin’ reiterates this view.

As does the Local Government Association (LGA) claim that “the future of financial sustainability of councils in general is on a ‘cliff-edge’ meaning they will be obliged to significantly cut services unless Government reform is forthcoming”.

On the point of Government reform your editorial comment states, “The fact that a review of how local authorities are funded was promised last year, is yet to materialise is bordering on negligence”. You conclude, “The Government needs to act now”.

To make matters worse Government funding to smooth out inequalities has been drastically reduced in recent years.

A greater proportion of local authority funding now comes from council tax and business rates both of which favour more prosperous areas of the country.

In my view council tax is a regressive tax and requires radical reform. If you live in many parts of the North or other poorer areas of the country you will pay on average 1.1 per cent of the value of your home in council tax every year. If you live in Kensington and Chelsea you will pay 0.1 per cent.

Council tax is ten times as great in Britain’s poorest areas. A proportional property tax would be fairer and could reduce inequality between rich and poor households.